![]() Hospitality is a wonderful means of discipleship, but it also prepares our people for conflict. But one avenue of love is essential-hospitality. How are we to love our people? In a hundred ways. If, as a pattern of ministry, we hide in our studies and refuse to interact with fellow church members, they won’t know us and so won’t be equipped to recognize slander when conflict comes. How can they sift the true from the false? Pastors, it’s our responsibility to love our people so well that they truly know us. In conflict, subtle insinuations, vague accusations, and even overt lies combine to present church members with a carnival mirror’s reflection of their pastor. Faced with such an enemy, our responsibility as shepherds is to humble ourselves in prayer and to ask Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. When he requested of the Lord to sift Peter (Luke 22:31), Satan wasn’t in any doubt as to whether or not he would be successful. Satan is so much smarter and stronger than we are. ![]() If possible, he intends to dishonor Christ’s name in the community.Īnd here’s the thing. He intends for church members to be wounded and disillusioned. He intends for the conflict to divide the church. Pastors are forced to confront human opponents when the health of the church is at stake.īut ultimately, we need to remember that Satan is at work in every instance of church conflict. In leadership conflict, the struggle is almost always personal. Each week, our sermon preparation gives us the opportunity to do the same thing. David strengthened himself in the Lord when his own men spoke of stoning him after their wives and children had been taken captive by the Amalekites (1 Sam. Our people also need to hear the voice of a faithful under-shepherd, particularly if other voices are calling for their attention.įinally, pastors themselves need to spend time with God through his Word. But our people still need to hear God’s Word. One of the first questions an older pastor asked me when he learned I was facing conflict in the church was “How are your sermons?” He wanted me to avoid the pitfall many pastors fall into of thinking they have an excuse not to prepare.īrothers, the battle will affect our emotions and that will, at times, make sermon preparation difficult. But in the midst of controversy we can easily be side-tracked and put sermon preparation on the back-burner. Looking back, here are nine lessons I took away from our church’s experience of conflict.Īs pastors, our most basic responsibility is to preach the Word (2 Tim. ![]() Pastors need to be vigilant to do all they can to avoid leadership conflict, but they also need to respond wisely to leadership conflict when it comes. Then there are the less sinister, but still frequently destructive Paul-and-Barnabas-type disagreements. Confronting such threats necessarily involves conflict. Likewise, Paul warned the Ephesian elders that wolves would arise from among them and would not spare the flock (Acts 20:29–30). Jesus spoke of false prophets who would come in among the disciples (Matt. It’s scary, disorienting, confusing, and damaging. Leadership conflict in the church is tough. Recently, I had the opportunity to counsel a pastor facing a leadership conflict in his church, and I was reminded of how frequently churches are afflicted. Rod’s encouragements and wisdom during the week that followed were grace to me, a young pastor just struggling to keep his head above water in a sea of conflict. Rod was a pastor and, just the year before, had walked through an amazingly similar period of conflict in his church. On the Sunday morning of what would be the most difficult members’ meeting for me, God sent Rod and his wife Joy, who were vacationing in the area, to visit our church. There were many instances of his kindness, but one in particular stands out. As you might expect, the resignation of these two elders led to a series of very difficult members’ meetings.īut God was with us. Suddenly, our young church had entered into the murky, dark, choppy waters of leadership conflict. Two elders left the church, but not before raising some serious accusations against me as the pastor. Two years into our church plant, we faced our first major crisis.
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